Asheville, NC: NS/Southern Railyard, Yard Tower, Roundhouse and Biltmore Depot

Railyard: (Satellite, the yard stretches north into the city.)

Yard Tower: (Satellite)

Roundhouse: (Satellite)

Depot: (Satellite)

Daryl Lunsford commented on a post about a NS bridge collapse on Oct 23, 2024
I was a conductor with NS in the 90s, and my cousin still is one. He sent me this drone shot of Asheville yard a couple of weeks ago.
[This is flooding caused by Hurricane Helene.]

This is the yard tower that we see in the water in the above photo.

Street View, Oct 2023

Street View, Feb 2024

None of the topo maps with a scale of 1:24,000 loaded, so I had to use this 1:250,000 map. Southern had routes going to all four points of the compass. They share the route through town so I knew the yard would be along that shared segment.

1960/60 Knoxville Quad @ 250,000

Joseph Anderson posted
Like CSX, NS is not playing around this time and is preparing for future flood events. The replacement housing box for the CP Biltmore interlocking in Asheville, NC I think (at least personally for me) sets a new record for the highest elevated housing box I've seen in all my travels to date. Photo date: 2025-05-18

Jim Ruff: The railroads call these "housing boxes", bungalows.

Jon Roma: Elevated signal bungalows have been a thing for decades; among the installations I recall seeing were on the B&O main line that follows the Potomac River west of Harper's Ferry, and the C&O main line along the Ohio River in eastern Kentucky. The Illinois Central main line along the Mississippi in Kentucky also comes to mind.

Several of these installations were placed after devastating floods in the Thirties. Unfortunately flood events are becoming more widespread.

Joseph Anderson: Jon Roma Out of curiosity, if the components inside the signal housing box are spared from damage from flood events, does that infer that just the switches and their wiring just need to be replaced, or is there more stuff (like the bulbs and wiring for signals that have aspects low to the ground) that would have to be repair/replaced? Or does it simply boil down to "it just depends?".

Jon Roma: Joseph Anderson, when Katrina hit New Orleans in August 2005, Norfolk Southern had already rerouted rail traffic to other inland interchanges with western railroads, and embargoed service to the area where the storm was expected to make landfall. With the railroad out of service, their signal gangs removed as much equipment – switch machines, crossing signals, wayside signals, etc. and moved them to high ground. The railroad simultaneously stockpiled other material like ballast, ties, and rails near but not in the threatened area.

After the storm passed, there was obviously a lot of track damage (including track that was just plain missing) that had to be restored. Meanwhile the signal workforce began to restore the system.

I suspect that, unless the cables were physically damaged or failed insulation testing, the cable ends could be cleaned and reattached. With all the expensive equipment (microcontrollers, switch machines, signals, etc.) out of harm's way, they were able to restore the signal system relatively quickly.

NS produced a video on the recovery from Katrina, and it was quite interesting to watch.

Here's an article in the trade presss about storm recovery in the Thirties, digitized and on my website.

https://tinyurl.com/ymw4skmn

I assume that the non-bridge scenes are of the Asheville area.

Norfolk Southern posted 10 photos with the comment:

One year ago today [Sep 26, 2025; so on Sep 26, 2024], Hurricane Helene brought historic flooding and devastation to much of Western NC and Eastern TN. 

In the days and months that followed, our railroaders, first responders, and local partners worked shoulder to shoulder to restore service safely and support those in need. 

Within 72 hours after the storm, our Engineering team safely cleared 15,000+ trees, repaired multiple washouts and slide fences, deployed 400+ generators, and reopened all affected mainline track—often working without commercial power. 

Five months later, Team NS and our contractors rebuilt the Newport rail bridge in Tennessee, restoring a vital link through the Blue Ridge Mountains. By April, the first non-revenue train rolled through Asheville. By May, customer freight was moving again. 

This summer, the Asheville team celebrated the opening of their brand-new crew room, replacing a space that had been destroyed in the storm. 

Each milestone is more than trains rolling or buildings and infrastructure rebuilt. It shows the grit, resilience, and determination of the people who keep this railroad running strong. 💪

There is still work to be done, including the restoration of the portion of the line that connects Old Fort to Grovestone through the historic Old Fort Loops. Team NS remains on the ground, committed to rebuilding stronger every day.  

🔗 Learn more at https://bit.ly/4mGisv0.

Randall Hampton shared

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Note the fresh ballast in this and the following two photos.

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It appears the water has receded some because the tracks are above water here. Or did they stay dry in this part of town?

Amanda Jean posted, cropped
Asheville River Arts District after Hurricane Helene.

Biltmore Depot

The main depot in downtown Asheville was torn down.

Street View, Jul 2025

Gary Miller posted two photos with the comment:

The Biltmore Village depot in Asheville, NC, is a historic 1896 railway station designed by famous architect Richard Morris Hunt. It was built for the Southern Railway, in the Tudor Revival-style which features pebbledash stucco, half-timbering, and a gabled Porte cochère

George Vanderbilt had the station positioned to give arriving guests a direct view of the Cathedral of All Souls as a gateway to the Biltmore Estate.

 Passenger rail service at this station ended in August 1975 and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

The depot had been operating as a restaurant until Hurricane Helene submerged the building with flooding French Broad River. 

I visited the building today and it looks unrepairable, but I was told by a local that a new owner has purchased the building and plans to renovate it and open a new restaurant in the future.

John Field Pankow: When the railroad was first built to Asheville in 1880, the first train station was built here. It was called Asheville Junction, though it was technically known as Best. None of the locals ever called it that because Best was the name of a yankee carpetbagger who embezzled money from the railroad. In 1883, they built another, much grander, station closer to town, which was replaced in 1904 by an even grander station. Around 1890, George Vanderbilt bought the entire village that had grown up in the area and renamed it Biltmore and built a new train station, a post office, church, etc.. While the station was designed by Richard M. Hunt, most of the buildings in Biltmore were designed by Richard Sharp Smith (1853-1924), an Englishman who took over as Vanderbilt's architect after Hunt's death in 1895. In 1920, Mrs. Vanderbilt sold Biltmore Village to George Stephens of Charlotte.

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Randall Hampton shared

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82newsnow
Paperhouse is moving in. It is a food-truck operation that is moving into a permanent location.

Steve Wilson posted two photos with the comment: "Biltmore N.C station. Stood thru 2 BIG floods. 1916 and 2024. Both up to it's roof. Tough little place! Still there."

Andrew Stone: The old railroad station had a dome roof

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This must be the predecessor station that Andrew mentioned above.

Andrew Stone commented on Steve's post